MESSAGE FROM OUR MINISTER - BRUCE JACKSON

PILGRIMAGE
Dear Friends, I will not be working in the office during the month of November. I am going on Pilgrimage from November 7th to the 19th.
I will be in Israel praying at the holy places.
I will be praying for all of you as I carry everyone in my heart.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The vision for ministry I hold is that a faith community should provide a sanctuary to care for the children of God living with the scrapes and bruises acquired along the road of life. Learning and working together to develop such a community of peace where the broken are healed, transformed and empowered to live out all they are meant to be, is accomplished only with the Spirit of the Living Christ amongst us.

The church community can offer healing and wholeness (salvation) to people on their spiritual journey. I believe we begin to heal together in a loving community as part of Creation through worshipping the loving God through Christ. Together our faith journeys allow us to live out our faith in service and pastoral care to the community. Individually we all have a story to tell. On my own life journey I had many hopes and aspirations for the future. I always thought the next opportunity would bring me fame and fortune. I was caught in society's expectations, and found myself living in a "foreign place" and like the Hebrew people who escaped oppression in Egypt, I too wandered in my "desert experience" in a large city.

On this segment of my journey, I lost or gave up much of what I once had. My relationship fell apart, when I could not see what was happening to me, and I ended up at a point, returning to the place and way of life as a youth. Delivering newspapers at 4:00 A.M. allowed me to survive, and learn much about myself. The only constant in my life, was my association with my faith community. Struggling through divorce, unable to find work, and trying to find a place where my gifts would be accepted and utilized I struggled to understand what was happening to the reality I once knew.

When I read Paul's letter to the Corinthians where he wrote "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?....For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters; not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so than no one might boast in the presence of God".

I realized truth in the statement, and my spiritual journey exploration brought me a new perception of the world in which we live. Through prayer, discernment and following a call like Samuel in the middle of the night, I found myself a servant of God. My resurrection and new life slowly emerged from this winter period, like lilies that grow under the glaciers. I was nurtured and challenged by a church community in Edmonton.

The church accepted what I offered and I was affirmed and challenged to grow in new directions. Without a job, I found myself reading and learning from many who were not working. Ernie Zelinski who wrote the "Joy of Not Working" was part of a small coffee group where we gathered to discuss politics, life and religion. As an eclectic reader, I encountered Matthew Fox, writing on the meaning of work. Fox described the difference between good work and evil work. Good work was co-creating with God, where as bad work was life destroying such as weapons manufacturing, and any activity that takes away life in creation. Fox teaches how to live a life with meaning and purpose by finding what was missing in people's lives, and offer something to people that allows them to flourish.

Noting the missing dimension of Spiritual growth in the lives of people, I answered God's call to become a teacher / prophet to the people, even though I had resisted for a long time. We all have our Jonah moments and tend to run the other way. My journey into full time ministry has been an incredible experience. I continue to be blessed beyond belief. New life has come with the journey. Living with hope and love, I have found healing and a journey toward wholeness. I see the world in new ways. The Spirit of Love and life as shown to us by Jesus the Christ continues to lead me where I once thought I did not want to go.

There are moments when I am uncertain of the days ahead, but I have a faith knowing that God is with us and continues to offer us full life in many dimensions. The mystery may never be revealed but the journey continues to reveal many ways the Spirit is alive in our lives, turning the world and the status quo upside down.

I look forward to walking with you on your journey.